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A Controversial Problem That Too Many Of My Students Have

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 1/24/2023 7 min read

I recently wrote a blog post entitled “This Is A Big Problem,” in which I talked about how fear holds too many of my students back from achieving their full potential. While education, practice and experience all help solve that problem over time, it does take time and too many people give up along the way.

Today I want to expose another big problem I see — which really reared its ugly head in response to my charity’s latest $25,000 donation:**

…while I was trying to support one of my favorite cities, Las Vegas, in response to this tragic event in which several of my students died or were injured, my idea to try to lessen gun violence provoked some real nastiness in the comments from people who are very much pro-guns who were quick to tell me they would unfollow me and report my account too…both of which are a sad commentary on the state of our nation in which someone having a different viewpoint from you automatically offends people, and in some extreme cases, makes the people with two differing views enemies.

Now, I don’t want this blog post to get political (at all), but no matter what you believe, I think we ALL want there to be less violence in the world and while it’s going to be a difficult battle with no clear solution in sight, one thing I know we need is open discussion…hence why I just made this followup video:**

…and the reaction to that new video is significantly more positive and constructive mainly because when given the “okay” to debate differing views in a positive and useful manner, my students really get into it with each other and so far there’s been VERY few hateful/negative messages posted which is in sharp contrast to my Instagram video posted above.

Now, one reason might be because Youtube allows me a longer video time of several minutes as opposed to Instagram’s strict 60-second cutoff time so I could explain my position more thoroughly, or you might conclude that since I have 1+ million followers on Instagram vs roughly 200,000 on Youtube, there’s bound to be more negativity with the bigger audience, but I like to think of this event as a good example of how to think and behave vs how not to.

I’m curious to hear your own thoughts in the comment section of this blog post too as I welcome ALL feedback, just try to make it constructive and not rude (as tough as it is for some of you with strong opinions on this matter!)

And since I’ve traveled extensively to over 100+ countries the past few years, talking with people of SO many different backgrounds, I can tell you that we’re all a lot more alike with far more similar values than most of us realize and the main problem we have is we don’t communicate openly enough with each other and we let our emotions dictate our responses.

And while this is a political/social debate, how to behave, communicate and think vs how not to also applies to the stock market — I see FAR too many Trading Challenge students and non-students alike being narrow-minded in their strategies and approaches and they miss out on considering new ways of trading that could help them profit more often.

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For example, if you watched this interview with one of my newest six-figure profit trading challenge students:**

…you know that Roland’s dad is a value investor, so he was VERY much against his son getting into penny stock trading.

While I don’t know exactly how it played out between the two of them, Roland ended up joining my Trading Challenge and now he’s turned $4,000 into over $300,000 this year alone (leave a comment below this blog post if you want me to do another interview with Roland since he’s more than doubled his account size since that interview we did just 3 months ago so I’m guessing he has some more lessons to share!).**

Now that he’s been so successful and the stage is set for him to become my next Millionaire Trading Challenge student if he continues working hard and studying a ton, his dad and him joke about their difference in opinion, but I know too many people who listen to their friends and family who base their anti-penny stock feelings on the movie The Wolf Of Wall Street, mistakenly believing all penny stock trading is just about actually believing these piece of crap companies, when in fact nearly all of my top Millionaire Trading Challenge students and I have made millions betting AGAINST these penny stock pump and dumps. ..see my favorite anti-penny stock pump and dump pattern HERE.

The problem with penny stocks isn’t the stocks themselves, it’s the misunderstandings and bitterness that penny stock promoters and their lies create — so it’s actually quite controversial for me to be pro-penny stocks when 99.9% of the world absolutely hates them.

The way that I look at it is like, what if I drove my Ferrari 220 mph in a 35 mph zone and crashed and died, is it the Ferrari’s fault or mine? It’s mine because I broke the speed limit…in this case, it’s not the Ferrari’s fault, it’s my fault…so why hate on the Ferrari?

The same holds true for penny stocks, if you learn and play by the proper speed-signage aka the penny stock rules I outline here, you’ll have a very good penny stock experience…and so you just need to learn those rules as they’re good for you!

In my mind, it’s little different with guns, we just need better rules and laws…and while I’m not a politician, I think there’s substantial room for improvement in the gun laws to reduce the violence we see in our nation today.

But, you tell me what you think in the comments below…seriously, communication and sharing each other’s views help cut through the hate and the BS I see everywhere on ANY controversial topic…whether it’s gun violence, penny stocks, or anything where people have very strong opinions.

Having strong opinions on a subject is not a bad thing, but being unwilling to listen to others’ opinions is…so today’s lesson is just to be more open-minded and respect each other more, along with our differences as it’s this liberty, freedom and ability to debate openly WITHOUT VIOLENCE is what makes our country and society so great in the first place!


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* Results are not typical and will vary from person to person. Making money trading stocks takes time, dedication, and hard work. There are inherent risks involved with investing in the stock market, including the loss of your investment. Past performance in the market is not indicative of future results. Any investment is at your own risk. See Terms of Service here

The available research on day trading suggests that most active traders lose money. Fees and overtrading are major contributors to these losses.

A 2000 study called “Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors” evaluated 66,465 U.S. households that held stocks from 1991 to 1996. The households that traded most averaged an 11.4% annual return during a period where the overall market gained 17.9%. These lower returns were attributed to overconfidence.

A 2014 paper (revised 2019) titled “Learning Fast or Slow?” analyzed the complete transaction history of the Taiwan Stock Exchange between 1992 and 2006. It looked at the ongoing performance of day traders in this sample, and found that 97% of day traders can expect to lose money from trading, and more than 90% of all day trading volume can be traced to investors who predictably lose money. Additionally, it tied the behavior of gamblers and drivers who get more speeding tickets to overtrading, and cited studies showing that legalized gambling has an inverse effect on trading volume.

A 2019 research study (revised 2020) called “Day Trading for a Living?” observed 19,646 Brazilian futures contract traders who started day trading from 2013 to 2015, and recorded two years of their trading activity. The study authors found that 97% of traders with more than 300 days actively trading lost money, and only 1.1% earned more than the Brazilian minimum wage ($16 USD per day). They hypothesized that the greater returns shown in previous studies did not differentiate between frequent day traders and those who traded rarely, and that more frequent trading activity decreases the chance of profitability.

These studies show the wide variance of the available data on day trading profitability. One thing that seems clear from the research is that most day traders lose money .

Millionaire Media 66 W Flagler St. Ste. 900 Miami, FL 33130 United States (888) 878-3621 This is for information purposes only as Millionaire Media LLC nor Timothy Sykes is registered as a securities broker-dealer or an investment adviser. No information herein is intended as securities brokerage, investment, tax, accounting or legal advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any company, security or fund. Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes cannot and does not assess, verify or guarantee the adequacy, accuracy or completeness of any information, the suitability or profitability of any particular investment, or the potential value of any investment or informational source. The reader bears responsibility for his/her own investment research and decisions, should seek the advice of a qualified securities professional before making any investment, and investigate and fully understand any and all risks before investing. Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes in no way warrants the solvency, financial condition, or investment advisability of any of the securities mentioned in communications or websites. In addition, Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes accepts no liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of this information. This information is not intended to be used as the sole basis of any investment decision, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the investment needs of any particular investor. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future returns.

Citations for Disclaimer

Barber, Brad M. and Odean, Terrance, Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors. Available at SSRN: “Day Trading for a Living?”

Barber, Brad M. and Lee, Yi-Tsung and Liu, Yu-Jane and Odean, Terrance and Zhang, Ke, Learning Fast or Slow? (May 28, 2019). Forthcoming: Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=2535636”

Chague, Fernando and De-Losso, Rodrigo and Giovannetti, Bruno, Day Trading for a Living? (June 11, 2020). Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=3423101”